Social media platform review: Mastodon and its instances
It occurred to me that I'm on four different platforms since Nipplegate and interpersonal drama led me to cut back on Tumblr use, six if you count different Mastodon instances as different platforms (and I think they do in some senses, for reasons that I'll explain). I've seen people discussing platform fatigue post-Tumblr and confusion about which platform to use for what purposes, so I thought it might be useful to discuss my usage of and experiences with these platforms. I'm not providing definitive answers for anyone else, obviously. I'm not even giving definitive answers for me because my usage patterns will no doubt change in the future, but it may serve as a reference point and snapshot.
Current and future posts in this series are:
The first post is about Mastodon, the open-source Twitter analogue.
Summary of platform: Open-source and decentralized microblogging codebase
Platform usage: Short updates and impressions; discussions and conversations with people I'm connected to
Instance directories: Scroll to the bottom of the official site, or try this instance finder (updated 1/29/2019, thanks
enchantedsleeper for the question)
This is the platform where I'm currently the most active because posting small updates throughout the day has always been the way I used social media. Mastodon fills that gap better for me than Twitter used to or Tumblr did when I used it that way. Mastodon is very close to Twitter on the surface, with an extinct relative of the elephant as the logo instead of a blue bird, a 500-character post limit, multiple "instances (servers)" instead of one huge site, "toots" instead of tweets, "boosts" instead of retweets, and an unfoldable content-warning/subject line feature that may be used differently based on instance policy.
I will try to be as informative as necessary to understand this post, since Mastodon involves concepts that might be unfamiliar to some readers. A full introduction of Mastodon and the related concepts of Federation are beyond the scope of this post, however, so please see their official site or a Lifehacker primer if you need more information.
In addition to the microblogging aspect I enjoy the social atmosphere of Mastodon, at least the instances I'm active on. (There are instances I would never set foot in, and through the magic of decentralization and federation I don't have to interact with them or see them. See below.) As someone pointed out, the whole thing has a chill web-board feel. It's not that we don't talk about serious subjects! Discussions abound about online privacy, the future of social media, sexuality, bigotry, free expression and more, right alongside squeeing about favorite shows, bitching about RL stuff, and celebrating milestones. Even when discussing serious subjects, however, in 99% of cases that I've come across people converse in good faith which makes it an enjoyable environment that actually helps me learn.
The good behavior is aided by the fact that Mastodon has actually effective moderation. Remember how I said Mastodon could count as three different platforms in my case? Do the math, chop chop. This is because I have accounts on three different Mastodon instances. See an article on the Mastodon blog for more explanation on instances, moderation, and privacy. The bare bones of it is that Mastodon is a codebase that can be run by anyone with access to a web server, with different instances having very different subject matters, memberships, and moderation policies. Instances communicate with each other via federation, even across platforms: e.g. you can follow blog platform Pleroma accounts from your Mastodon account and vice versa. The flip side is that instances can also block or defederate with each other so there is a form of communal moderation as well as moderation of individuals. Individual, non-admin users can block entire instances for themselves, too.
In practice what this means is that instance admins are able to meaningfully moderate their communities. It is discouraged for instances to grow too large for moderation, though mastodon.social at 300K users is getting there and there are rumbles about defederating with it. Have a user on your instance violating the TOS? Boot them. Notice an instance whose aims and policies are contrary to those of your own? Defederate with them.
This is what I mean when I say a Mastodon instance can count as a different social media platform, to say nothing of the different platforms that can federate through ActivityPub. It looks like Mastodon is the most mature and user-friendly of this family, but I'm excited about the broader possibilities of federation technology.
That was a long prelude to reviewing my experiences with the different Mastodon instances I'm on. Here is how I've personally experienced them as a user:
Mastodon.cloud
This one is a general/social instance with about 53K users as of this writing. The Lifehacker primer suggests it as an alternative to mastodon.social, since m.s is getting so big. I use it for general updates, links, and observations that don't fit the focus of any other instance I'm on, though to be clear it's fine to make these on fandom.ink and even scholar.social allows them unlisted and content-warned.
Ironically, though this is the largest instance I'm on it's also the least active for me. I just don't see updates on the local timeline that particularly interest me, and ended up not following a lot of people compared to my other two accounts.
It's also worth noting that this is a fairly loosely-modded, possibly unmodded instance. The "about" page doesn't even contain rules, meaning it doesn't have a formal policy about people who spread bigoted views or engage in offensive actions. I have never interacted with the admin of this instance, which you may notice is listed as a corporation and not an individual, in stark contrast to the other two instances where the admins were among my first mutuals (tootuals?) whom I regularly talk to.
This is an okay general-purpose instance and my experiences are generally positive, but if I am to drop one of my accounts down the line this would be the first on the list.
Fandom.ink
As the domain name implies, fandom.ink is a fandom-focused instance with 1.2K users at current, though I believe new sign-ups are only available by invitation now signups are open again though it was by invitation only for a while (updated 1/29/2019, thanks
asya_ana for the correction!). Remember, growing the userbase at all costs is not encouraged, and this is another way that an instance admin can control the size of their instance to be a manageable and cohesive community. The admin behind these decisions for fandom.ink is the lovely Alis Franklin,
alisx on DW.
Fandom.ink is the instance I'm most active on, and because most of the active users also have DWs I've subscribed to and been subscribed to by a bunch of new journals here too. I have few shared active fandoms with the users but we still have nice conversations about pan-fandom issues, social media, recent shows and so on. (Also you couldn't pay me to go onto a SW-focused instance tbh.) I love the warm and welcoming atmosphere here and consider it my main hangout these days. Alis also set up a happily tooting Dr. Doom as the instance mascot in place of the default mastodon, how cool is that?
Scholar.social
Again, it's in the domain name: An instance focused on scholarship and academia. It has around 2.7K users at present. This instance has the strictest rules of the instances I have experience with when it comes to posting, what should be listed on the local timeline and what shouldn't, what should be content-warned and so on. That works well for the purpose and focus of this instance in my opinion. The admin is strict about enforcing these rules, closing down noxious people, and defederating with hateful instances or those that otherwise are not compatible with instance policy (such as un-CW'd porn), making for a calm, safe atmosphere conducive to conversation rather than one where we have to put out trash fires at every step. I don't think I'd want scholar.social to be my only instance, but it's perfect for my professional side account.
In sum, Mastodon is working out very well for me so far as a place for online social interactions throughout the day with people who share common interests, though the conversations don't always center around those interests. I look forward to more platforms implementing ActivityPub and joining the fediverse, and for the current platforms to progress in their development.
For anyone thinking of joining Mastodon, my advice is that it matters what instance you join and it's a good idea to try out more than one. (The same probably goes for other ActivityPub-enabled platforms but I don't have as much experience with them, and Mastodon has the most instances as far as I know.) You can still follow, be followed by, and talk to people across federated instances, but your instance is your home base and community. Data is fully portable, so don't hesitate to move if you find your current instance is a bad fit. You can have multiple accounts a little like Tumblr's sideblogs if that's what works for you, or you can have just one and follow instance policy on off-topic posts, if any. If you do join I hope you enjoy it as much as I am!
Dreamwidth entry URL: https://lj-writes.dreamwidth.org/2019/01/27/mastodon-review.html
Current and future posts in this series are:
- Mastodon and its instances
- Tumblr trouble
- Living the Dreamwidth
- Snoozing on Pillowfort
The first post is about Mastodon, the open-source Twitter analogue.
Summary of platform: Open-source and decentralized microblogging codebase
Platform usage: Short updates and impressions; discussions and conversations with people I'm connected to
Instance directories: Scroll to the bottom of the official site, or try this instance finder (updated 1/29/2019, thanks
enchantedsleeper for the question)
This is the platform where I'm currently the most active because posting small updates throughout the day has always been the way I used social media. Mastodon fills that gap better for me than Twitter used to or Tumblr did when I used it that way. Mastodon is very close to Twitter on the surface, with an extinct relative of the elephant as the logo instead of a blue bird, a 500-character post limit, multiple "instances (servers)" instead of one huge site, "toots" instead of tweets, "boosts" instead of retweets, and an unfoldable content-warning/subject line feature that may be used differently based on instance policy.
I will try to be as informative as necessary to understand this post, since Mastodon involves concepts that might be unfamiliar to some readers. A full introduction of Mastodon and the related concepts of Federation are beyond the scope of this post, however, so please see their official site or a Lifehacker primer if you need more information.
In addition to the microblogging aspect I enjoy the social atmosphere of Mastodon, at least the instances I'm active on. (There are instances I would never set foot in, and through the magic of decentralization and federation I don't have to interact with them or see them. See below.) As someone pointed out, the whole thing has a chill web-board feel. It's not that we don't talk about serious subjects! Discussions abound about online privacy, the future of social media, sexuality, bigotry, free expression and more, right alongside squeeing about favorite shows, bitching about RL stuff, and celebrating milestones. Even when discussing serious subjects, however, in 99% of cases that I've come across people converse in good faith which makes it an enjoyable environment that actually helps me learn.
The good behavior is aided by the fact that Mastodon has actually effective moderation. Remember how I said Mastodon could count as three different platforms in my case? Do the math, chop chop. This is because I have accounts on three different Mastodon instances. See an article on the Mastodon blog for more explanation on instances, moderation, and privacy. The bare bones of it is that Mastodon is a codebase that can be run by anyone with access to a web server, with different instances having very different subject matters, memberships, and moderation policies. Instances communicate with each other via federation, even across platforms: e.g. you can follow blog platform Pleroma accounts from your Mastodon account and vice versa. The flip side is that instances can also block or defederate with each other so there is a form of communal moderation as well as moderation of individuals. Individual, non-admin users can block entire instances for themselves, too.
In practice what this means is that instance admins are able to meaningfully moderate their communities. It is discouraged for instances to grow too large for moderation, though mastodon.social at 300K users is getting there and there are rumbles about defederating with it. Have a user on your instance violating the TOS? Boot them. Notice an instance whose aims and policies are contrary to those of your own? Defederate with them.
This is what I mean when I say a Mastodon instance can count as a different social media platform, to say nothing of the different platforms that can federate through ActivityPub. It looks like Mastodon is the most mature and user-friendly of this family, but I'm excited about the broader possibilities of federation technology.
That was a long prelude to reviewing my experiences with the different Mastodon instances I'm on. Here is how I've personally experienced them as a user:
Mastodon.cloud
This one is a general/social instance with about 53K users as of this writing. The Lifehacker primer suggests it as an alternative to mastodon.social, since m.s is getting so big. I use it for general updates, links, and observations that don't fit the focus of any other instance I'm on, though to be clear it's fine to make these on fandom.ink and even scholar.social allows them unlisted and content-warned.
Ironically, though this is the largest instance I'm on it's also the least active for me. I just don't see updates on the local timeline that particularly interest me, and ended up not following a lot of people compared to my other two accounts.
It's also worth noting that this is a fairly loosely-modded, possibly unmodded instance. The "about" page doesn't even contain rules, meaning it doesn't have a formal policy about people who spread bigoted views or engage in offensive actions. I have never interacted with the admin of this instance, which you may notice is listed as a corporation and not an individual, in stark contrast to the other two instances where the admins were among my first mutuals (tootuals?) whom I regularly talk to.
This is an okay general-purpose instance and my experiences are generally positive, but if I am to drop one of my accounts down the line this would be the first on the list.
Fandom.ink
As the domain name implies, fandom.ink is a fandom-focused instance with 1.2K users at current, though I believe new sign-ups are only available by invitation now signups are open again though it was by invitation only for a while (updated 1/29/2019, thanks
asya_ana for the correction!). Remember, growing the userbase at all costs is not encouraged, and this is another way that an instance admin can control the size of their instance to be a manageable and cohesive community. The admin behind these decisions for fandom.ink is the lovely Alis Franklin,
alisx on DW.
Fandom.ink is the instance I'm most active on, and because most of the active users also have DWs I've subscribed to and been subscribed to by a bunch of new journals here too. I have few shared active fandoms with the users but we still have nice conversations about pan-fandom issues, social media, recent shows and so on. (Also you couldn't pay me to go onto a SW-focused instance tbh.) I love the warm and welcoming atmosphere here and consider it my main hangout these days. Alis also set up a happily tooting Dr. Doom as the instance mascot in place of the default mastodon, how cool is that?
Scholar.social
Again, it's in the domain name: An instance focused on scholarship and academia. It has around 2.7K users at present. This instance has the strictest rules of the instances I have experience with when it comes to posting, what should be listed on the local timeline and what shouldn't, what should be content-warned and so on. That works well for the purpose and focus of this instance in my opinion. The admin is strict about enforcing these rules, closing down noxious people, and defederating with hateful instances or those that otherwise are not compatible with instance policy (such as un-CW'd porn), making for a calm, safe atmosphere conducive to conversation rather than one where we have to put out trash fires at every step. I don't think I'd want scholar.social to be my only instance, but it's perfect for my professional side account.
In sum, Mastodon is working out very well for me so far as a place for online social interactions throughout the day with people who share common interests, though the conversations don't always center around those interests. I look forward to more platforms implementing ActivityPub and joining the fediverse, and for the current platforms to progress in their development.
For anyone thinking of joining Mastodon, my advice is that it matters what instance you join and it's a good idea to try out more than one. (The same probably goes for other ActivityPub-enabled platforms but I don't have as much experience with them, and Mastodon has the most instances as far as I know.) You can still follow, be followed by, and talk to people across federated instances, but your instance is your home base and community. Data is fully portable, so don't hesitate to move if you find your current instance is a bad fit. You can have multiple accounts a little like Tumblr's sideblogs if that's what works for you, or you can have just one and follow instance policy on off-topic posts, if any. If you do join I hope you enjoy it as much as I am!
Dreamwidth entry URL: https://lj-writes.dreamwidth.org/2019/01/27/mastodon-review.html